"Whiskey girls are the good kind of bad news"
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"Found it," Edward said coming out of the store room, a huge pile of old worn out files balanced expertly on both his hands.
He slammed the dozen files on the hardwood desk and plopped down on the chair letting his legs rest on the table.
He heaved a sigh and widened his eyes. "Now where should we start from?"Matt and the girl who had seated herself a good two seats away from him. No one replied.
"Answer me," said Edward, his tone clipped and the fire blazing beneath his words weren't latent to Matt, but he chose to ignore it.
"You brought us here against our will. Now answer for yourself," Matt said. He stood up from his previous seat and made his way to Edward's desk.
"Very well then," Edward said rubbing his palms against each other as if to run a 100 mile marathon. "How about we start from 2007?" he said with a sardonic smile etched on his face.
Matt remained passive only infuriating Edward more.
"What are you talking about?" she inquired, deciding to be a part of the 'entertaining' conversation. She sat reluctantly beside Matt who had now seated himself infront of Edward.
"Oh allow me to explain. These"- he motioned at the scattered files on his desk- "are Matt's records of delinquency on annual basis"
Edward had a broad smile on his face, as if it was the fourth of July. Not that it would make any difference to him,
A cop is never on holiday.
"Oh," was all she said.
"Are you okay?" Matt asked when she didn't overreact like any other would have.
"Um yeah I'm fine. Just a little shocked," she said awkwardly, tucking a strand of hair that had escaped from the loose bun behind her ear. The two boys looked at her earnestly before cracking up with laughter.
"She sure is a sucker for jokes," Edward said through his bellowing laughter. The two high-fived each other while she looked at their 'act' with incredulity.
"You lied," she said pointing a finger at Edward.
"Bam! You got the answer right babe," he said grinning.
"That's plain rude," she said, sneaking glances at Matt with skepticism.
Matt snorted, "Glad you figured it out."
"You're such a schlemiel," she bursted out when she couldn't find a proper comeback.
Edward stopped laughing and looked at her in confusion. "What did you say? Was it skunk?"
Now it was her turn to laugh.
"I called you a sclemiel. Not a skunk, though you smell like one," she said when her laughter was under control.
Edward grinned, "Good one. Though I haven't any idea of what it means."
She smiled, "Now that the joke's over, will you tell me what these files are about?"
"You're not going to leave it, are you?" Edward asked.
"Nope," she said shaking her head.
The loose bun resting on top of her head fell apart cascading down her shoulders to her waist. It dangled sideways responding to the movements in her actions.
Matt rolled his eyes, "Ever the curious, our Miss prim and proper."
"Careful before labelling Mathew. For all you know I could be the Grim Reaper in disguise," she said with a pretense gravelly voice. "Or perhaps your personal spy."
"Oh maybe tooth fairy in disguise," he suggested.
She sighed, "I'll leave it to you to figure who I am."
"You aren't going to answer my question, are you?" she asked again expectantly.
For some reason or the other, she felt a little 'over' curious of the files and obliged to reveal Matt's identity.
"Sorry. Disclosure of confidential information will have us--me under treason leading to striping off my-"
"That's enough. She didn't ask for your oath," Matt said interrupting Edward's oath of loyalty.
"Yeah. A simple no would've sufficed but it was nice knowing your sincerity and loyalty for our country," she said, offering a small smile.
"Save your words for someone who deserves it. This bastard- ow," Edward's blow made Matt shut his mouth.
"Actions speak more than words," she said, noting how fishy the boys were behaving.
"Oh by the way why am I here?" she asked. The two stopped quarrelling and looked at her.
"Yes why are we here?" Matt demanded.
"Well," Edward drawled. "You know why."
"Well," the girl mimicked him. "Apparently our heart to heart conversation was interrupted by a jobless police officer, who decided that arresting two innocent teenagers would be fun."
Matt sighed, regretting his decision of letting her come up with the 'reasonable' excuse.
He raised his eyebrows, "Seriously?"
"Don't blame me! My brain is currently having its beauty sleep," she said, looking anywhere but him.
"Fine," he huffed. "Edward, why are we here?"
"Demands lead to no decent answer Mathew," she scolded, her voice resembling that of a nun during one of his sermons.
"Pardon me Ms soft-and-spongy. Mr. Edward Paige, why am I here again?" Matt said, his voice dripping of sarcasm. "Was that kind enough?"
"Very much," she said with an eye roll.
"I arrested you for murder. Let's take it as first degree murder," Edward said as though he was narrating a bedtime story to a kid. One that was profoundly nightmarish.
"What?" the girl shrieked. "Killing oneself is NOT murder."
"Yes, I agree but you helped Matt die," Edward said.
"Mr. Blind Cop, if it isn't the very Matt who, theoretically I had helped to die, is infront of you, then who else is? An imposter?"
"You've gotta be kidding me," Matt muttered. He felt like a third-wheel in a very lame fight between two very lame people.
"The existence of this raven-haired delinquent was a mystery to me till now. What makes you think I would help him? Let alone die," she said gesturing at Matt.
Matt seemed to have made himself occupied in shooting daggers at Edward. It gave her enough confidence to insult him without being caught.
"What makes you think that Matt is a delinquent?" Edward asked making brief eye contact with Matt.
She froze. She didn't know for herself why she had called him by that name.
"Well-um," she stuttered, trying to come up with a reason. "I don't know, it just---came in a flow."
"I see," Edward nodded slowly. "Well back to the subject, Matt had helped you suicide and the other way around. In police language, it's first degree murder. Simple."
"You, of all people, should know rules, regulations and definitions of some laws," she chimed in with a huff.
"Pardon me, again. My brain is currently having its 'beauty sleep'," Edward mimicked quoting her previous words, and aired quotation marks just to emphasise it.
She huffed and opened her mouth to answer but was cut off.
"What do you want?" Matt growled.
The earlier playfulness was gone, his voice was nothing like the way it was the second before. To her, it sounded feral and vicious, an Eagle denied its prey.
For a reason unknown, Matt's appearance always reminded her of birds.
His curious eyes that had her think of the beady eyes of her once-upon-a-time hummingbird. His feral looks was that of an Eagle's, his grey calculating gaze the dark look of a hawk she had once seen in LA.
Right now the only bird she could picture him was Pelican.
Calm and collected, but that was only till the prey comes to the surface, onto his line of sight and that's when Hell breaks loose.
Edward's answer would be the trigger to Matt's anger. She found it amusing picturing him with a long bill and shiny eyes, waiting to peck Edward away. She clawed at her wrist softly, trying to distract herself from laughing.
"What do you find so interesting, milady? Please enlighten us, perhaps we could join you," Matt said, turning around slowly, his attention to her.
"Nothing," she said and smiled. Well atleast tried to smile. It looked an in between of a laugh and a vain attempt in constipation. He rolled his eyes but said nothing.
"If you have nothing to say may I take my leave?" Matt said with arms crossed.
"You know exactly what I want from you Mathew," Edward said coolly without looking at him.
His calm composed stance didn't work well with Matt's temper. Edward's eyes were set on the fidget spinner resting on his thumb, adding fuel to the fire brewing inside Matt.
Matt was livid, a Falcon on its mountain walls aiming it's prey but the only thing his mouth uttered was, "It's Matt. For the fucking millionth time."
"What do you think you will achieve by burning your sorry ass, huh? Die and everyone lives happily ever after. End of story. Do you know what they will do?" Edward said his voice rising with every word until he was literally screaming. "They will kill us. All of--," he stopped when Matt raised his finger.
"We have strangers...guests," he said motioning at the girl.
She looked at the two men with a blank face, her hazel eyes holding a sparkle of curiosity. Her lips pressed close and her hands were entwined tightly resting on the centre of her lap. She looked like one of her close relatives was undergoing a surgery.
"Follow me," Edward said curtly and vanished inside the store room that he had previously gone to retrieve the files. A few minutes had passed before Matt followed him reluctantly, muttering profanities under his breath.
When the two men were out of sight, "You both take your own time. I'm just going to chill in here while you're busy with whatever-the-fudge-you're-doing ignoring the pathetic not-so-guest 'stranger' here," she whisper-shouted. "LOSERS! Go die in a gutter infested with blood sucking leeches."
"I heard that," said a voice behind her.
Startled, she looked behind to find Matt's head peeping out of the store room. She stuck her tongue out at him, causing him to laugh.
She sighed after he retrieved back. "Great! I'm going to suck my life in this godforsaken police station in the middle of the night."
"Perhaps a coffee would do good...with cinnamon."
After what felt like eons, she was sure the two were either making out or ripping each other's throats off.
She made her way to the storeroom door. Her plan was simple, one intrude the boys, two keep her pocket knife on either one of their throats and demand their problem and three, solve it humanly.
The mennish ways the two handled their conversation had more chances of burning down a house than solving it.
"Mathew. It should be him," she said to herself and nodded in agreement. "The knife should be held at his throat. That boy sure has something with me. I'll show him what a girl can do."
When she about to twist the rusted door handle, something gleamed on the table. She strained her eyes to have a closer look at the shiny object, it was a small silver pen holder resting on top of the files. She gasped.
"Oh. My. Freaking. Hellish. Goodness." She squealed. "How could it have passed my mind? The files. I'm coming for you, baby."
She happily skipped to Edward's table, like Red Riding Hood's journey to meet her grandma. Only that to her, grandma came in the form of files. She sat cross-legged on top of the table.
After making herself comfortable, she grabbed the first file that her hand got hold of. It was empty. She took another one but she found it empty and the rest of the files were no different than the previous ones.
She sighed, "You're attempt of pranking has just succeeded. Congratulations Edward."
Exhausted, she decided to go for her previous plan but a certain book caught her attention.
Unlike the ordinary mundane books scattered on Edward's table, this one was oddly striking out. She was suddenly intrigued of its presence, not to mention the fact it was hidden under the files. A vain attempt of Edward's pathetic hiding, she thought smirking.
She analysed it with a renewed interest, it was a hardcover book with plain black leather cover. Her fingers ran along the hardcover.
A hardly unnoticeable outline of an image was etched on the cover. She closed her eyes and let her fingers trace the picture, intricated swirls and circles and petaloid structures.
She pictured the tracing pattern on her mind and when she found her answer her face was scrunched in confusion.
"A rose?" she asked, doubt visible in her voice. She analysed the image intensely to find her guess accurate.
"Is this some kinda prank or what?" she asked, a little irated.
"Hm, let's see now," she continued and turned the page.
It was empty.
"EMPTY! We meet again!" she said poking the page. She waited for something to happen, perhaps a mystic creature to pop out or a genie with a million wishes. But nothing happened.
She turned to the next page, and Hallelujah it had words in it. A verse in a language which unfortunately wasn't one that she knew.
A Fronte Praecipitium,
A Tergo Lupi.
Since 2013
The verse was written in bold black ink.
She narrowed her eyes but said nothing despite her mind sprouting possible reasons for the strange book. What she found in the next page was exactly what she needed, the topic was in printed bold letters: R11
Ignoring the oddity of the heading, her eyes automatically swept to the interesting part,
Name: Mathew Andrews
***DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN***
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," shouted a masculine voice behind her followed by the slamming of a door.
Cursing, she shut the book quickly and got down, dusting the imaginary dirt on herself.
Out walked Matt, looking livid than he had ever been. His ears were red and his eyes were blazing with a fire that made her immediately regret her decision of seeing the book.
He glared at her with an intense death warning which made imaginary bells ring around her. I'm going to die, she thought. Her mind was too exhausted and wry of the eventful day to build up a reasonable lie.
"I-I didn't-," she stammered.
"C'mon we're leaving," he said giving no room for her to talk. He grabbed her by the wrist and left the station before Edward could come out.
She could here Edward shouting "Stop" but Matt paid no heed and the girl was kept captive by him.
They had reached the streets already, with Matt's speed walking ability followed by her complaints, yet he hadn't let go of her hand.
They reached the end of the streets and he stopped as if realising something. He looked at her with an unreadable expression,
"Look I know it was wrong of me to have entered your privacy without permission. I was just curious and not--," she started.
"What are you talking about? Has the drink made your nerves dysfunctional?" he asked.
"I meant your boo-," she said and stopped. "Wait, you didn't see anything?"
"See what?" he asked more annoyed than angry.
"You didn't see me. You're not angry at me," she almost screamed.
"Why would I be angry at you for no reason? Unless I'm a pathetic high school girl jealous of your golden nail polish or your broken tape recorder of a voice."
She was too happy to notice his sarcasm, "I'm going to live. You're not going to kill me."
He shook his head, "Something has been added to your drink. I'm sure of it."
"YES. I'm going to live the night. You didn't see it," she said smiling with all 32 teeth displayed.
"What didn't I see?" he asked with eyes narrowed lightly. "What did you do?"
Realising she had just handed herself bait to the lion she smiled innocently, "nothing."
"What did you do?" he asked nearing her.
"Nothing," she drawled taking a step back.
He grabbed her by the wrist pulling her to him, "Tell. Me."
"I said nothing. Ouch. It's painful, leave me," she protested.
He tightened his grip daring her. Knowing he wouldn't wear down, like her mother would have, she sighed giving into his threats.
"Fine I'll tell," she said and he let go of her immediately. "I didn't do anything with an exception of finding...ablackbookwithgodforsakenletterswhichicouldntread," she said it all in one breath and stared at him expecting the worse.
"I swear upon my entry ticket to Heaven," she added for extra effort.
He looked at her for a long time, enough to make her feel queasy, "You didn't understand anything?"
"No," she said quickly. Better be on the good side.
His lips twitched and she knew she was safe. "I believe you and next time you better keep your hands to yourself."
She grinned, "If there is a next time I will. Bye."
She turned to leave but he stopped her.
"Wait I can't just leave you at this time of the hour. Where do you live?"
She pointed at the sky, "right there."
"I didn't know tooth fairies live among stars," he said.
She winked, "Upgraded version of tooth fairy."
He looked up at the dark abyss where the mystery girl deemed living but when he looked down, she had vanished.
His face morphed confusion and a small spark of uneasiness lighted his feelings. She sure wasn't a figment of his imagination. Her vivid character was too hard to interpret, much less imagine something like her in his blank mind.
A clap resonated from behind him and turning around, he was met with her distant ear-to-ear grin. She was a few metres away from him, Hell was she so fast.
"I live in close by, my house a couple blocks away. I can make it home safe," she shouted.
"I'll come with you," he urged, and almost immediately regretted it.
She smiled, "today was a long day Mathew. Go home."
If there really was a home.
She turned and walked away. When she was almost out of sight, he remembered something crucially important.
"Wait," he shouted and she stopped but didn't turn around. "You didn't tell me your name."
Now she turned around, a figure as small as Matt's thumb yet he could see the slight tilt in her rosy lips brightening her hazel eyes, "Strangers?"
He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, remembering what he had said Edward a while ago.
"Fine Strangers."